Boys Night, Girls Night

What's this? I've been bitten by the writing bug! Here's another chapter, and if everyone plays nice, I'll post another tonight or early tomorrow :-)  Thank you again to all my wonderful readers and reviewers! It means more than I can say. Now back to our story....



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39.

Ginny watched intently as Lucius barked orders. A troop of five house elves had been summoned from Malfoy Manor the second they had landed in the apartment. Each of them had been popping in and out of the apartment for the last hour fetching different books, ointments, potions, and in one odd fifteen-minute span,Blaise's mother. Pansy was conspicuously absent during that part. 

Narcissa was sitting next to the bed in the guestroom simply staring at Draco and holding his hand, not saying one word. She looked concerned, but not to the point where Ginny feared for Draco's life. It was just after five o’clock when Narcissa excused herself while the house elves were going about their work. 

Catching her outside the door, Ginny couldn't quite contain the impatience she felt while she spoke. "Is he going to be ok? What happened to him? He's going to be ok, right?" Ginny peered around the door. Draco was still pale, but at least he was alert, conversing with his father in low tones.

Narcissa sighed, but nodded her head. "The hex wasn't fatal, though it did enough damage. I'm not quite sure who I want to hurt more, this psychopath or Draco for being so stupid and grabbing that parchment which appeared out of nowhere, inside a crime scene, where dark magic was present. I swear I've raised him better than that." She huffed.

Ginny let out a hard laugh. "Magical boys will be magical boys. Why was Ophelia Zabini-Hurst here?"

"Ophelia knows more about what is affecting Draco than Lucius does, and she owes him quite a few favors." Narcissa looked rather pinched about the mouth. "What that parchment held, besides instructions for Draco, was an ancient hex pureblood families used long ago on slothful servants and house elves. The hex binds whomever it comes into contact with a time and location. It works like a portkey.”

Ginny knew vaguely what Narcissa was talking about, but her family didn’t own elves, nor did they use servants. Her Aunt Muriel was the one who had shown her the hex once when she was little. Auntie Muriel thought it was great fun. Ginny thought it was barbaric. The pain of the hex was temporary. However, if the servant, or in this case Draco, refused to let the hex transport him…well, let’s just say torture was putting it mildly.

“So, this sicko has, in effect, summoned Draco?” Ginny whispered, seeing the plan unfold.

Narcissa looked grim. “Summoned him directly into a trap, most likely.”  Both women looked around the door jam.

Harry had had a brief conversation with both Malfoys before departing for the Ministry. From what she dragged out of him before he left, Lucius knew Hermione was in her apartment. However, she was in a magical plane within her apartment. Ginny kept picturing a Russian doll, where a smaller version was inside the shell, and a smaller one inside that, and one inside that…. 

It was dark magic. It was dangerous. Limited magic could be used inside without collapsing the magical structure of it. And what more, the magical world inside Hermione’s apartment had taken a prolonged amount of time to build and create. And Hermione had only been there a week…

So that narrowed down the suspects from Krum, Stanley and Serpens to just the last two. Krum had an alibi all week, although Ginny never suspected him to begin with. Stanley, Serpens….what if one was the other? 

Or what if one had control of the other… that would fill in the blank times between each of the suspects alibi. While one was at “work”, the other was building the place that would hold Hermione. And then vice versa…they just needed to find out who was controlling who, or if they were both in cahoots.

There was something to that, Ginny decided, nodding to herself. Unexpectedly she felt a little light headed. She swayed and Narcissa grabbed her shoulder to steady her. Looking up at the older women, she realized Narcissa looked at her a little suspiciously.

Ginny shrugged and led her down the hallway towards the kitchen where everyone else was already eating dinner.  

Now wasn’t the time.